Proverbs 6-7

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Proverbs 6:20-35

“My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 21 bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. 22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. 23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: 24 to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. 25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. 26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. 27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? 28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? 30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; 31 but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. 32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. 33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away. 34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. 35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.”

Introduction

“Proverbs chapter 6, we have come as far as verse 20, where again the exhortation is, “My son,” you can take that “as my daughter” no doubt Solomon, writing, thinking of his own sons, who would turn away, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, just the trouble that would be in the kingdom, and thinking of the things he told us earlier that his father David had said to him, and the Spirit of God through Solomon speaking to each of us, “my son, my daughter,” and here it is, the exhortation, “keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:” (verse 20) Interesting, keep your father’s commandment, and the torah of thy mother, dads are the ones who give commandments, and moms lay down the law. “Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.” (verse 21) notice that, not on the physical part of your being, wear them as a necklace, but wear them, demonstrate them, “When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.” (verse 22) the idea is, in your path, in your going, it shall lead thee, literally “it will guide you.” It is the torah of the mother, the commandment of the father, obviously the Word of God is what it’s pointing to. And it says here, ‘When you go, in your journeying, it will guide you,’ “when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee;” wonderfully the Hebrew says ‘it will keep guard over you, when you’re sleeping, the Word of God.’ Isn’t that remarkable? ‘will keep guard over you, and when you awake, get up in the morning, it will talk with thee, if you let it.’ You get up in the morning, you open God’s Word, it will talk to you, this is the talking Book, right here, if we let it, it will talk to us, it will tell us different than what this world will tell us. He says “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:” (verse23) Now, the commandment is a lamp, they didn’t know anything about neon lights or bulbs or flashlights, they only knew about in the darkness a lamp, an oil lamp was what they knew of. And the light, no doubt, points to the sunlight, the light of day. So it says here ‘The commandment is a lamp, the law is light,’ the idea is, ‘In this dark world, these are the sources of spiritual light that we have,’ “and reproofs of instruction” the lamp of God’s Word, the light of it will reprove us, and challenge us. ‘Those reproofs, instructions, he says, are in fact the way of life itself.’

Life Is More Than Eye-Candy

Now, he’s going to go into this exhortation, which will be the rest of this chapter. This again is about “the strange woman,” then he will head right into chapter 7 and reiterate the whole thing. So here in chapter 6 this “strange woman” has already made it three times in the Proverbs, and they’re all major sections, and in the first 9 chapters over one fourth of the print is relative to this problem of an adulterous woman, and the toll that sexual immorality takes on human life. We only find adultery and immorality mentioned, I believe, in chapters 22, I think 23, 26 and 30, kind of in the thing we normally think of Proverbs, one verse type of proverbs, or contrasted proverbs. Where we find the long exhortations, the servant type proverbs, are all in the first 9 chapters, and it is the broadest subject in these early chapters, God has something to say to warn about this. So, ‘My son, hear this, let it guide you, let it be a light, it’ll guide your path, it’ll guard you when you’re asleep, it’ll talk to you in the morning, it is light, it is life, and in its reproofs and corrections, the way of life,’ he says, first thing here, “To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.” (verse 24) So to guard you, to keep you, spiritually, physically from this evil woman, we’re going to see she’s evil in her influence, she’s the strange woman again, pointing to a foreign woman, often prostitutes, but even the adulteress of your own neighbourhood, or the adulteress, a prostitute, immoral woman from a foreign country, they’re both brought before our view here, because the adultery that’s entered into with either one of them causes the same destruction. So, this is one of the first things he’s saying, ‘This is what I want you to understand, this is what I want you to learn,’ look, verse 25, “Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.” So, “lust not in thine heart,” that’s where lust begins, in the heart, that’s where we guys can let it go on, because nobody sees it. We can justify ‘Well, it’s not harming anybody, it’s just something I personally wrestle with inside.’ [Comment: and we all wrestle with this inside, to one degree or another, but it’s what you do with those thoughts that counts, not letting them take lodge in your heart and mind, kicking them out when they first make their appearance., as Pastor Joe brings out many times.] This says instruction, when light shines into the deepest part of your being, ‘bind these sayings upon your heart,’ that even within, the exhortation is ‘Don’t let your heart, the deepest part of your being, lust after her.’ It doesn’t say she’s not more physically attractive than your wife, it doesn’t say that. That could be a possibility. What it’s saying is ‘Life is way more than eye-candy.’ You guys hear me? It’s way more than that. You know, I look at Mike and Betty up here on Sunday, and she’s in a wheel chair, and they got married, they were young, early twenties, by the time she was 26 she was in a wheel chair, and she happened to marry a man whose fine enough, without intimacy the way you would think about it, to take care of her for over 30 years. Guy, when you pick out a woman, is it just eye-candy, or is it somebody where if you get in a car wreck and you [or she] ends up paralyzed, did you marry a woman [or man] whose going to take care of you for the rest of your life, no matter what the cost? Because this is destructive, and it is promoted in our culture like it is the norm, like it is acceptable, and it is heart-wrenching and heart-breaking. Don’t lust after her beauty, it’s only pink deep most of the time, in your heart, don’t let her take thee with her eyelids, and often in that culture there would be a, even inside a burka the eyes were seen in ancient cultures, sometimes the scarf was across the nose, the shoulders would be seen, but the face you would just see the eyes, so there was eye make-up, particularly Egyptian women. The idea is, that was the part of the face you saw. “neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.” (verses 25b-26) by the means of a whorish woman is a man reduced to a crust of bread. I have seen it with my eyes, and I am watching it today in some lives. And a friend of mine, the pastor of a huge church, that fell, said “One of the things that I have discovered in this process of the disaster in my sin is that God’s promises of judgment are as faithful as his promises of life and forgiveness. If you mock his Word, you turn away from it, and you ignore it, his Word is faithful, and he will bring the things upon you he says he will bring upon you. I’m thankful” he said, “repentance and in forgiveness, God’s grace is just as powerful, and it will be there.” [as it was in David’s life with Bathsheba] But it’s destructive. “For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of crust of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.” King James says “will hunt for the precious life.” The Hebrew says “for the precious soul will she hunt.” The Hebrew word is “to stalk.” You hear of the stalker these days, somebody’s a stalker, that’s the idea, “the precious soul” precious to God, not to her, “will she hunt.”

God Says, ‘I Draw A Difference Between Hunger For Food And Hunger For Sexual Fulfillment’

Now from verse 27 down to verse 35 there starts to be, now here’s the consequences, these are the things you need to think about. “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” (verse 27) ‘Can you take hot coals from the fire, put them inside your shirt, and not get burned?’ You can ask Samson or David or the prodigal son these questions. “Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?” and you can hear Satan go ‘Ahh’ you see them on TV, people walking on hot coals. Look, you think ‘OK, I can commit adultery, because maybe if I walk on hot coals I won’t be burned.’ Well what we should do is make a giant pit across here, fill it with hot coals burning red, and everybody walks slowly across it, and if your feet don’t get burned, well you can take that chance. You see how ridiculous this is, that anybody throws this up. The idea is, you can’t take fire into your bosom and not be burned. The word “burned” is there, you can’t walk in the midst of burning coals, the idea of the word is “burned” there. Here’s the point, verse 29, “So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.” Or if a married man goes with a single gal or a married gal, or if a married woman goes with a man whose single or married, “So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.” the idea in the Hebrew is “shall not go unpunished.” You’re playing with fire, it says it twice, look, we accept in the natural, you can’t take burning coals into your clothes and not get burnt. You can’t walk into the middle of a fire and your feet are not going to get burnt. Apply the same logic to this situation, because God is telling us, “So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife” you have to understand, it’s destructive, ‘and he shall not be innocent,’ it’s literally “he shall not go unpunished.” Now it was a capital crime in Israel by the way, adultery, that’s how serious God is about that particular crime, you were put to death. There was no need for lawyers and going through all this legal word, it just ended quickly. In fact, in Jesus’ day, most of the time, if a person was caught in adultery, they would take him to the center of the village, the town, and they would stand them in this huge container of manure, which was usually about waist deep, and then the whole town would gather and stone them, and they would fall down dead into the manure, and then they would put a tree in the middle of that manure. And as the months and years went along, of course that tree was happy as, had bone meal, blood meal, manure, everything, made it happy. Right in the middle of town you had this beautiful, fertile, green happy tree, and every day it would be saying to the people in that town “I’m happy, but they ain’t.” Every day it would be preaching a sermon. So, the idea is, these things don’t happen with impunity, and no one should ever think that. “Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; but if be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.” (verses 30-31) there’s a certain amount of compassion, if somebody stole bread out of the marketplace or they stole food because they were starving, they were hungry, you’re not gonna kill that guy, he’s going to make restitution, but there’s almost a side of us as humans, ‘Poor guy, he was starving,’ you take note of that. But it says, verse 32, “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.” he shall not go unpunished. So here’s two kinds of theft, they’re both thieves, one of them is stealing food, it’s wrong, but God says ‘I draw a difference between hunger for food, and hunger for sexual fulfillment.’ Hunger for food, if that’s not satisfied, it is meant to be satisfied, someone will die. Hunger for sexual fulfillment is wait till marriage. Girls, don’t let anybody tell you they’re going to die, their head’s going to explode and all this stuff, it ain’t gonna happen. God draws a difference here. ‘Whoso committeth adultery,’ that’s a different kind of theft. Both are stealing, #1, “Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding:” “he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.” don’t let him blame anybody else, don’t let him point the finger anywhere else, don’t let him say it’s anybody else’s fault, God says, this woman, this man, destroys their own souls, nobody else is doing it, they destroy their own soul.

You Can Steal Bread, And You Can Pay It Back, You Can’t Pay This Back

“A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.” (verse 33) the Hebrew says “his disgrace shall not be wiped away.” There is a stigma attached to it that’s never removed. Now look, there is grace. You know, in the Old Testament there was the death sentence. If someone falls into adultery in the Church [Body of Christ], there is room to repent [David experienced that room by God’s grace in the Old Testament, pointing toward the New Testament grace of God]. I believe it is a Biblical grounds for divorce for the innocent party. I don’t believe that has to be the outcome. God knows all of our makeup. Some of us may be, may have enough fortitude and strength to actually forgive and move on. Many of us probably couldn’t. And the thing you have to understand, even if your wife, a solid, strong grounded Christian forgives you, she will never forget. She may genuinely forgive you and love you, but to the last breath she takes, she’s always going to know ‘My husband violated a trust,’ or the husband will know that about his wife. So “A wound and dishonour shall he get;” and his disgrace shall not be wiped away.” (verse 33) though in Christ there can be repentance and forgiveness, don’t let that ever make this a light thing to think about, “For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.” (verses 34-35) So the idea is, you can steal bread, and you can pay it back, you can’t pay this back. If you steal this from another man, with his wife, or from another woman with her husband, you can never pay that back. You have violated a sacred trust in that marriage where they stood at the altar and they pledged their fidelity, you have touched something that doesn’t belong to you, and will never be restored. There is never, and, you know, as Christians we’re supposed to forgive each other, but on the wrong day in the wrong place, it says that husband, that jealous partner, you’re not gonna calm him down, vengeance, he’s got it cookin’ inside of him, and you if you get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, you can make a fast exist from this world. Now, delightful subject, right? I mean, here we are. So here is, this is the Word, the Word will guide you, will keep you safe. And you need to understand that, because the tendency with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, don’t do it, don’t lust after her beauty, don’t let her take you with her eyes, a strange woman, evil woman, don’t get involved in it, because you can’t take fire and play with it and not get burnt. It’s just the way it is. And a human being may steal bread, and yet somebody might say ‘Alright, he was starving, I hate thieves but, long as he pays it back, alright.’ But if he steals this, there’s never an answer, you will have wounded your own soul, it’s never repaired, you take a disgrace to yourself that’s never wiped away, and vengeance is something that seethes and cooks in regards to this, because there’s never again that trust that was there in that relationship, that you stepped into and violated, and you never get it back.

Proverbs 7:1-27

“My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. 2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. 3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. 4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: 5 that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. 6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, 7 and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, 8 passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, 9 in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark of night: 10 and, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. 11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: 12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) 13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. 15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. 16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. 19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: 20 he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. 21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. 22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; 23 till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. 24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. 26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. 27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”

Introduction: Treat My Law Like The Pupil Of Your Eye, Which Lets In Light, Lets You Have Vision

“Chapter 7 in light of that, now he is going to say “My son” then “keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.” (verses 1-2) so we head into this, and he’s gonna now open up the whole scenario about how someone is seduced, and how it takes place. And you know, the thing about me, as I’m looking at this, “My son, keep” the Hebrew word there is better translated “observe”, because it’s not just “keep” to know it, it’s “keep to practice this, observe it, practice it.” ‘keep, observe my words, and lay up, store up my commandments with thee, lay them up in your hearts, store them up, have them ready when you need them, we need to pull the Word out of its sheathe, it needs to be sharp, make sure you do it, keep my commandments,’ he says, “and live;” and it implies forever, eternal life is what’s implied here, and it says “and keep my law as the apple of thine eye” the pupil. It’s an interesting grammatical deal in the Hebrew, it’s “the man of your eye,” because you can see the reflection of someone in someone’s eye, that speaks of the black part, the pupil, the pupil of your eye is the part that lets in light, the pupil of your eye is the place that gives you vision and perspective, and your pupil, it says, “guards as the pupil” you can’t take dirt or smoke, anything gets in there, and he’s saying ‘That’s the way you should treat my commandments, they should be what lets light into your life, that helps you see and have vision.’ And you shouldn’t tolerate any dirt, just like you don’t tolerate it in your pupil, getting dirt in your eye or smoke in your eye, and how that bothers you, it should be the same way, with moral failure and dirt. Now look, I read these things, I think about these things, and I think about the younger generation, and I think about what’s being handed to them. You know, I was in high school ’64 to ’68, they hadn’t even invented lightning back then, let alone electricity, I’m ancient, right. But you think how things have changed, and I had teenagers ten years ago, and you think how the world has changed since ten years ago to now. And you know I was watching Spring Break on the news, in Florida, and I can’t imagine being a mom or a dad, seeing my son or daughter in the middle of all of that. Has anybody tuned in and watched any of that? And it’s insane, it’s Babylon, it’s incredible, and I think, this is the younger generation, all this is handed to them, they’re in darkness, they’re not born-again, they don’t know. And I thought, ‘That’s where I’d be,’ before I was saved, I’d be right in the middle of all the mess! And you think, the moral standards of our world, the thing that’s being handed on the platter, on the menu to them, and it’s being told ‘It’s OK, this is how you party, have sex on the beach,’ and you don’t know by the time it’s over how many guys you’ve slept with, how many girls you slept with, what you drank, who gave you what to smoke. And I think, this is a whole generation, it’s a whole generation. And without a Revival, without a moving of God’s Spirit, I don’t know where we’re going, I don’t know where we’re going. Because you read these things in the Word, and it is so counter-culture, it’s so removed from what people, and particularly young people, consider the norm, the moral standards, the world they’re living in. And he’s saying here, ‘You have to take my Word, and you have to guard it like the pupil of your eye, it should be something that lets light into your life, so you have perspective. Eternity is always out there on the horizon, our Blessed Hope, there should be a brilliant light that you admit.’ And just like you can’t stand it when you get dirt or smoke or something, sand in your eye, it should be the same thing with moral failure, like dirt, just guard yourself. “Bind them upon thy fingers,” like rings, “write them upon the table of thine heart.” (verse 3) your brain’s not enough, write ‘em on the deepest part of your being, listen to verse 4, “Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:” Look, he’s saying something completely familiar to them in the culture. You may have been a rascal, but there were certain things you did not do in front of your sister. Your kinswoman, your grandma, your aunt, your cousin, you know, the womenfolk in the house, you may sit out with the guys somewhere and have some conversation, you may do something when you were away, but there were certain things, there was great reverence for the sister in the home. There were certain things you just didn’t do in front of your sister, and you didn’t do in front of your aunt. Most of you hopefully who had a grandma who would have flattened your head if you did that. And some of you were raised by your grandma, raised by your aunt. [My sister is right now raising her two grandkids.] It says ‘Don’t do this stuff in front of wisdom, in front of understanding that you wouldn’t do in front of your sister or your grandma, because you’re doing it right in the face of God’s wisdom, in the face of God’s Word.’

‘Keep Yourself From The Strange Woman Which Flatters With Her Lips’

He says, ‘So, say it to wisdom, you know what, you’re my sister, and say to understanding, your grandma,’ “that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.” (verse 5) here we go again. She just shows up and shows up, she is strange, you’d think she’d go away by now. “from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.” Now here’s our picture, “the strange woman” the first word there is no doubt “the apostate.” We heard earlier about the woman who didn’t remain with the guide of her youth. So the first phrase can speak of a Hebrew, and Israelitish woman that’s turned away from her God and has entered into the immorality described here. The second word specifically, “the stranger” speaks of a foreigner, often they were the harlots in the culture, the prostitutes. And it says, either way, whether it’s someone who sits in church and talks like they have a great relationship with the LORD, and they’re sleeping around, or whether they are somebody whose out there who would never come to church, and you feel safer out there with her because nobody’s going to find out. The whole thing here is going to say, ‘Hey man, where God is, everything is in the wide-open, everything is seen.’ So, the strange woman, from the stranger, that flattereth with her words, now “here,” “for,” “because,” listen, “For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,” (verses 6-7) now, it becomes very obvious as we read through, that this one who is looking out of the window of his house is Sovereign, is Divine, because not only is he going to see an individual, then he starts to see what happens in the dark. He starts to see that fact that they’re void of understanding, he starts to hear their dialogue back and forth. It’s obviously how the picture now develops, and it’s God saying, ‘I looked out as it were from the window of my house, this is what is true, and this is what I observed in the process.’ “I beheld among the simple ones,” naïve, gullible, sometimes I think, the Spring Break, and I thought ‘What’s it like for some kid who grew up on a farm in Iowa, whose never seen anything, never ever seen a real hubcap, you know, and he goes to a city college, and he’s thrown out there in the middle of that, he must be thinking,’ I love this commercial with the little kids that are eating the Colonel Sander’s Chicken Nuggets, and they’re saying to their parents, ‘We don’t understand, what you’ve been feeding us our whole life? I mean, you told us, you know, I would take this without toys.’ And you think about unsaved kids, thrown out in the middle of this, never having touched or been involved in it, he says, “I looked through my casement, and beheld one of the naïve, gullible ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner;” the strange woman, foreigner, she has a corner, “and he went the way to her house,” (verses 6-8) We had read back in chapter 5:8 , ‘Do not get near her house.’ Now he’s going by the way of her house, he [God] watches this whole scene developing. Now look, dads, moms, you may have a kid that falls into sexual sin, but it should never happen because they are void of understanding, gullible, haven’t been warned, and haven’t been told. They should be raised in the Faith, they should know the truth of God’s Word. You can’t control their will, some of them need to have their own Paul of Tarsus experience, their own Damascus Road, where they fall down and say ‘Lord, what would you have me to do?’ sadly, heartbreakingly for the parent. But they should never fall into those things because they’ve never been warned, never been told, that’s your responsibility. “Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,” and then in verse 9, four words are going to make it darker and darker, it begins by saying “in the twilight,” then “in the evening,” then “in the black” then in “dark night:” this is all happening in the darkness, it was twilight earlier, there’s still time to flee, the idea is the deception, the temptation, it’s all getting darker and darker.

‘She’s Dressed To Kill’

Then consider this, “And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.” (verse 10) now “with the attire of a harlot,” it doesn’t say she is a harlot, maybe, but she has the clothing of a harlot, and she is subtil of heart, she is slick, she knows what she’s doing, she is dressed to kill. You ever hear that? ‘Wow! She was dressed to kill!’ Because it’s going to say down in verse 22 she takes him like an ox to the slaughter, she is dressed to kill. That’s the whole point. Look, we’re told this in 1^st Timothy, it says this, ‘Men should pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness,’ the idea is they’re not supposed to be flirting, ‘and sobriety, not with braided hair, gold, pearls, costly raiment,’ the idea is not drawing attention to themselves. Ah, Peter tells us the same thing as he talks to the women, it says ‘If you have a husband whose not living according to the Word,’ capital W, ‘that you without a word, without your mouth, you should win them by your godly lifestyle, while they behold your chaste conversation, your attitude, whose adorning, let it not be an outward adorning…but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even an ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great value.’ What it says here, moms, your daughters, because we have a school, we have kids who come to school, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and they walk in and you go ‘Whoa!’ ‘Where are you going, dressed like that!?’ You have any idea what that does to young men, whose hormones are just waking up. And again, you call the mom, and ask the mom in, and when you see the way the mom’s dressed, we figure out we’re fighting a loosing battle here. But sometimes you think ‘What is wrong with you!? Why would you let your daughter dress that way!?’ Those are the world’s standards. You know when my daughters grew up, I looked at them a certain way, I knew the beauty of them, I knew the spiritual, you know. Any boy who wanted to date my daughter immediately was a dog, because that’s what I was before I got saved. I really had to work through that, because they both have great husbands now. But I had a predisposition because of what I had been. And I didn’t need anybody dressing seductively for the traitor that lived inside of me to have his day anyway. And I think, I didn’t want any man looking at my daughter like I looked at women before I was saved. I don’t want anybody looking at my daughter that way. And I got granddaughters, a whole slew of them, five of them, and I don’t want anybody looking at them that way. And maybe by the time I have to say something about it I’ll be an old man, but again, I’ll still have enough Rambo in me to do some damage. [Pastor Joe is a huge bear of a man, so that he will.] But you don’t aid and abette that kind of thing. Her attire here is alluring. You look at television, you think about what’s being pushed out there, and she’s dressed to kill, dressed like a harlot, she’s slick in her heart, she’s subtil, she’s loud in the sense she’s not inhibited is the idea here.

‘She’s On The Prowl, Waiting To Ambush At Every Street Corner’

“And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:” she’s out looking for trouble, “Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)” (verses 10-11) so this guys got a great view from his window. “she lieth in wait” the Hebrew says, “to ambush at every corner.” Men, there’s an ambush at every corner, ladies, waiting there to ambush at every corner, “So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,” (verse 13) because she’s out there “hunting,” we read that before. She seizes him, she kisses him, and with an impudent, bold, arrogant, confident face, she says to him, “I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.” (verses 14-15) ‘And now, I’ve found you!’ This guy’s going like an ox to the slaughter. I mean, she’s taken all of him, and look, understand what she’s doing, this is all the god-speak, she’s got the god-speak, ‘I’m alone, I’m out, my husband’s not here, he doesn’t care about me, and I went to the Temple, I prayed, I offered the freewill offering, I offered my peace-offerings,’ so she has part of that to take home. One of the ways to a man is through his stomach, through his eyes, through his stomach, she’s got all the avenues open, there’s a feast physically involved in this, like Prime Rib, and all of this stuff she’s offering to him. She caught him, she kissed him with an impudent face, and she says ‘I have my peace offerings with me this day, I have payed my vows, therefore I came forth, I was in the Temple, I offered sacrifices, and prayed ‘O Lord, I just want a man who cares about me, I just want a man who sees me for what I really am, I’m just so lonely,’ and I came forth, and I realized that I was really looking for you, and now, I’ve found you.’ [laughter] You’re laughing. It has happened too many times here, over 30 some years. “My husband, my wife, they don’t meet my needs, I’m seeking the Lord, I’m praying, Lord I really need a soul, I need somebody you made from eternity to be at my side, and it isn’t this guy or gal, and I was deceived…and it’s you, and I’ve prayed, and now I’ve found you, God led me to you.’ the big ugly god, Dagon, not the God of heaven, some other god. “I found you…’ flattery, she’s working it, that’s what she’s doing. OK?

‘Her Fair Speech Leads Him To The Next Level Downward’

And look, she says “I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.” (verses 16-17) cinnamon, we should just make French Toast and forget about it. “Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.” (verse 18) the idea is “drink” it’s the same word which is used in 5:18, where the LORD says ‘Let thy fountain be blessed, rejoice with the wife of thy youth,’ he encouraged you to drink out of your own fountain. She uses the same word here, she said ‘Come, let us take our fill, let us drink of love,’ lust is the idea, ‘until the morning, let us solace ourselves with loves.’ This Hebrew word “love” in the plural is always sexual, every time in the Bible. And whatever hesitancy he has, he’s probably thinking, ‘Ah, this ain’t good, you’re married, I’m going to be in trouble.’ She’s got this story, look, “For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.” (verses 19-20) ‘Don’t worry, he’s out of town, and he’s taken a big bag of money with him, so he ain’t coming back soon, I know how long he stays away when he takes that much,’ “and will come home at the day appointed.” literally “at the new moon.” So evidently she’s offered sacrifices, maybe it’s the feast of the new moon she’s offering, the idea is, she says it’s gonna be at least a couple weeks, considering her sacrifices, till her husband comes back, look, ‘No one’s gonna know, he’s gone, he’s gonna be gone for awhile, he’s not coming home for several weeks, till the new moon. I was praying, I was so broken, I was seeking the LORD, and here you are, we need to be together.’ Look what it says, “With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.” (verse 21) Look, wives take note. Sometimes wives think, with the badgering of her lips she’s gonna force him. You may, but he ain’t gonna be happy. Learn a lesson from The Honey-Dripping Woman here, who understands, she’s working for the wrong reason, but it says, “With her fair speech she caused him to yield,” caused him, “with the flattering of her lips she forced him.” it says, and “He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;” (verse 22) now what’s happened is, she’s worked him, the kiss, a kiss is always a down payment, a promise of more to come, ‘I’ll trump that, and I’ll add,’ it always is an invitation to more. She said the right things, all the god-talk, she assured him ‘my husband’s gone, everything in my house smells good, I got a big roast in the oven, besides the cinnamon, aloes and everything,’

‘She Breaks Down His Resistance, Bringing On The Final Outcome’

Look, she’s worked this, worked this, evidently the way she’s worked it, he’s resisted, or you can turn the table, he’s worked it, he’s worked it, she resisted, but then all of a sudden, it says ‘Then finally he goeth after her straightway,’ the word is “suddenly.” So he resists, he resists, he resists, he resists, the whole time he’s resisting it’s in his heart to do it, that’s what he’s resisting. He hasn’t listened to the warnings that we’ve read about. And all of a sudden, when you cross that line somehow, inside, and all of a sudden, suddenly you’re gone. You resist, you resist, ‘I can’t, it’s not right, I can’t do it…’ you know, she’s worked it, she’s worked it, worked it, worked it, he should have been running. Joseph, in Egypt, ran out! Left his robe in her hand. He headed outa there! He just said, ‘God forbid, I can’t sin against God.’ He just ran! That’s what this guy should have done long before this. But she works him, and works him, this is what sin does. You know, it’s in the heart, the heart then always eventually makes a convert of the mind, and the mind finally rationalizes, it finally gets to the point where you cross the line, and when you cross the line, you are gone. And here’s what the picture of being gone is like. It says, “He goeth after suddenly,” he just finally makes the turn and goes, and it says, “as” this is how he goes, “as an ox goeth to the slaughter,” like a big dumb ox, with somebody pulling him by his nose, to where he’s gonna get his throat cut and bleed out. That’s how he goes, he finally makes that last decision, he turns, suddenly he’s gone like an ox to the slaughter. And I think of all of these perfumes, Poison, Passion, Seduction, one should be called Like an Ox to the Slaughter, you get the idea, you know. ‘He goes like an ox to the slaughter,’ or how about like this, “as a fool to the correction of stocks;” (verse 22) to be tied in the stocks. You know in the early part of our country, if you were caught in sexual sin, you were put in the stocks in the middle of town, and they threw old eggs, rotten tomatoes at you. If you go to Louisburg today you’ll see the stocks. They would say if a young man was caught in an inappropriate situation with a woman, they were put in the stocks, and the whole town would come and throw rotten vegetables at them. And the charge above the head was “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge,” that’s what we get our curse word from, “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.” And the whole town would rise up, and that individual [those individuals were] was punished. Today we just looked at Spring Break. What are you breaking from, sanity? You’re breaking from heaven, you’re breaking from common sense. What are you breaking from? He goes like an ox to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of stocks, being bound, being put in prison, guilty. And look what it says, “till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.” (verse 23) This is what it says, when you make that turn and you go with her, baby, you’re going down, it’s like an arrow going through your liver. Nobody thinks about that earlier in the day, ‘I mean, I should hook up with her, it’s like getting an arrow through your liver, it’s wonderful,’ that’s what it says, ‘like an arrow’ which was a fatal blow, this is a fatal attraction, it’s like an arrow going through his liver, ‘as a bird that runs to the snare,’ look, “and knoweth not it is for his life.” You know, Warning! Warning! Warning! anybody who has the medicine and dies of the disease is a fool, the Bible says. If you have the medicine, if you have the vaccination, if you have the remedy, and you still go, and you still die of the disease, you’re the fool, and the warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, then he says, look, “Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not” so here’s the responsibility on our part, “thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.” (verses 24-25) ‘to decline,’ it’s downward, ‘Don’t allow your heart to decline, #1, to her ways, the way she lives, the way she does things, don’t allow your heart to decline to her ways.’ “and go not” because once you allow your heart, “go not astray in her paths.” (verse 25b) The reason, “For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.” (verse 26) this is God all of a sudden stepping back, looking at more than just this woman in the town, more than this one incident, this one adulteress, this one strange woman. Literally it says “she’s cast down many wounded that died, to death” is the idea. And then the Hebrew says “yea, many, a vast host of strong men hath been slain by her.” “A vast host of strong men,” the idea is ‘through the ages, through the ages,’ this story has been played over and over and over and over. And there are a vast host of casualties, taken down into this trap, in this poison. ‘A vast host of strong men have been slain by her.’ “Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.” (verse 27) It wasn’t on the street sign, “Hell, this way.” “Her house is the way to hell, going down” and the Hebrew is literal, “to the chambers of death.” And you read this, and you know, you take the soberness of it, and we’re thankful for the blood of Christ, we’re thankful that there’s forgiveness, we’re thankful. But you look at the world, you look at its standards, you look at how it mocks at the truth, you look at what’s going on around us, and your heart breaks, your heart breaks. Those kids on the beach, and I thought, ‘How many spiritual sons and daughters do I have like that? How many do you dedicate as babies, put your life into them, put in years, are out there doing the same thing?’ And Lord forgive me for not having the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, that the truth would come across, not in man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit, and the power.

Wisdom Has A Counterpart To This Scenario: We Need A Revival!

But aside from my failings, to all of you that are here, God cries out, look at chapter 8, he says ‘Doesn’t wisdom cry, understanding puts forth her voice,’ look in chapter 9, ‘Wisdom has built her house, she’s hewn her seven pillars, she’s killed her beasts, she’s mingled her wine, she has a feast, just like this adulteress woman,’ he says, ‘Doesn’t wisdom do the same thing? Wisdom cries aloud in the streets, wisdom has a feast for us, wisdom has a home, a house that we’re welcome into, that asks us to come into, aren’t the things of God real to us, held out to us? the thing for you and I is, we have to walk, ‘The Word is a lamp unto my feet, the light of my path,’ we have to walk in the reality of these things, and if we’re not, we really need to examine our faith. Because Christ is coming soon, he said, ‘When the Son of man returns, will he find the Faith, the faith once delivered to the saints on the earth?’ I look at those early apostles, James, beheaded, James the son of Alpheaus thrown from the Temple, I think of Thomas in India, impaled, I think of Matthew, skinned alive and then shot full of arrows, I think of Peter, crucified upside down, you read through the lives of these men, and they weren’t thinking ‘Hey, I wonder if I could mess around a little bit, I wonder if I could have a few brews before I go out and preach the Gospel today, I wonder if it’s ok to go and see this movie, I know it’s R-rated.’ But they had walked with the Risen One, they had failed him terribly before his crucifixion, and after his resurrection he spread out his arms to them and he received them again, they were filled with his Spirit, they had seen eternal life, they had seen him after the crucifixion, they had spent 40 days with him, they saw the reality of it all, and there wasn’t anything in this world that was going to take them down, and they all died martyrs because they had all died years before that, they had given their lives to him, completely. And through the centuries there has been Pentecost after Pentecost after Pentecost, and we need to pray ‘Lord, let there be another Pentecost,’ either that, or ‘Blow the Trumpet and get us out of here!’ Rapture or Revival is the only thing that makes any sense to me. But of course, I barely got out of high school. But if my opinion, ‘Lord, either take us up or come down! Lord’ But as we read this tonight, and hear these things, look at how diametrically opposed that is to all of the moral standards in this world. Think what it’s like for you to go out and tell anybody in the world “I think marriage is between a man and a woman,” “I don’t think somebody should have sexual contact with a woman unless they’re married to her.” “I don’t think sexual activity should take place outside of marriage. I think this is what God has blessed.” And just think what you’re going to get, look at the heat that’s going to come down on your head, thing about how you’re going to be called a Fundamentalist and a Radical and a trouble-maker and a hate-monger, because you look at a world that’s lost and on the way to hell, and you want to say to them, ‘No, these are the things, this is what God has held out to us, this is what holds a marriage together, this is what happens between a man and a wife, this is what kids grow up under, and they’re strong and they’re healthy, this is what we want to see in the lives of our kids and in the lives of our grandkids.’ Amen? [loud applause] I don’t want to see my grandkids sleeping around, I don’t want to see them taking drugs, I don’t want to see them doing those things. But I can’t accomplish any of that in my own strength. That’s why we pray on Sunday night, we come together and say ‘Lord, fill us with your Spirit, Lord, do what we can’t do, Lord, work, Lord, we’re waiting, Lord, we’re looking to you,’ because we’re out-manned, and we’re out-gunned. But somehow I think that’s, he really likes to play against a stacked deck, he really loves it when the Egyptians are at your heals and the Red Sea is in front of you. He really loves it when the giant’s out in the valley shouting and screaming at everybody, and go have some kid put a slug in his forehead. You know, he really loves it when he makes the sun and moon stand still so Joshua can get a few more hours of fighting before the day’s over. That’s our God. You know, the generation I came from, Hippies, it was free-love, everybody was sleeping around, the same things, same things. And God cut right across it with the JESUS MOVEMENT, and he had his way. And he can have his way again, can’t he? He can have his way again. Let’s stand, let’s pray, we’ll have the musicians come, we’ll lift our voices. You know I encourage you, if you want prayer after this service tonight, come down, the pastors will be here, I would just encourage you to be completely honest, if you need to come down and say ‘I’ve been blowing it,’ or ‘You know what, I haven’t been taking a stand with my daughter, with my kids,’ or ‘You know what, I’ve ruined my home, and I don’t know the way back,’ or ‘You know what, I’ve done this, please show me the Word, so I can be certain that in repentance I have God’s grace, God’s love.’ If you want to pray and come and come with us, we’d love to pray with you…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Proverbs 6:20-35 and Proverbs 7:1-27 given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]